


Just a Few More Steps

by IcyPanther



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, BAMF Keith (Voltron), Fire, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) Backstory, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Lance (Voltron) Whump, Protective Keith (Voltron), Whump, burning building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 07:58:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16761136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyPanther/pseuds/IcyPanther
Summary: Everyone told his pop not to run back into that building. He did anyway.Keith let out a choked sound as he sprinted into the burning complex in search of Lance. Like father like son. He just… just hoped… hoped this had a happier ending.





	Just a Few More Steps

**Author's Note:**

> **Timeline notes:** Post season seven  
>  **Warning notes:** None (unless burning buildings are a trigger, then please be careful).  
>  **Additional notes:** For Tumblr follower kiriban event with prompt: Madam, please, lance in a burning building and extra suffering please :3

Keith sniffed the air, frowning.

The ravaged “town” his contingent from the Galaxy Garrison had been sent to assist had had the smell of decay and smoke and ruin from the moment they’d touched down. But there was something more acidic now, something sharper.

Something dangerous.

Keith looked up but his view of the sky was blocked by the large building he and Nadia had set up to distribute rations to the former Galra slaves now living in these slum-like conditions. This was a patch, a band-aid, to the larger problem, but for now it was something.

It felt good to do something after being cooped up in the hospital for almost two weeks. It felt good to help people, even if it was just handing out water bottles and packaged food.

It… it was a nice change from all the fighting, even for someone like him.

“What are you doing?” Nadia asked, eyebrow quirked. “You’re not your wolf, Ko—”

“ _¡_ _Fuego_ !” the cry shouted from further down the block. “ _¡_ _Fuego!_ ”

The cry was taken up by someone who spoke both English and Spanish in the latter dominant section of this town. “Fire! The complex is on fire!”

Keith’s blood turned to ice.

The complex was the nickname for the apartment like structure that most of the people here lived in.

The complex where Lance had gone, shooting Keith a smile and proclaiming he was being “kid-napped” with an exaggerated wink as several children had grasped at his hands when he’d spoken their own tongue back to them and Keith hadn’t had the heart to argue that Lance was supposed to be helping them with the distribution when the kids looked so _happy._

He was sprinting for the complex a tick later.

The smoke was visible now as he cleared around the buildings, a dark stain on the bright cloudless sky.

Keith _ran._

He wished he had his wolf.

He rounded the corner, a straightshot to the residential building.

It was _engulfed_ in flames, snapping and crackling.

People were gathered all around it, soot-stained and eyes white against dark faces.

Keith desperately scanned for a flash of orange of Lance’s cadet uniform, for laughing blue eyes.

He didn't see him.

His heart stuttered.

“Everyone back up! _¡_ _Todos, regresen_ !” yelled a larger man, shoving people away from the building. “Back _up!_ It’s gonna collapse!”

Keith beelined to him, trying to tamp down the panic. “Is everyone out?” he asked, shouting to be heard over the crying and crackling.

A woman tried to sprint past them and the man caught her about the waist.

 _“¡Mi hija!”_ she screamed, tears trekking down soot-covered cheeks. “ _¡Mi hija está ahí!_ ” She struggled in the man’s grip. “ _¡Déjame ir! Rosa! Rosa!_ ”

Keith knew very little Spanish but there was no mistaking the wild look of a mother missing their child.

Who must be in the building.

Oh God.

A new tongue of flames shot into the air and the complex gave a creak.

“No!” the man roared. His voice lowered. “ _No puedes. Lo… lo siento. Pero no lo harás.”_

 _“No!”_ she wailed. “ _¡Déjame ir!”_

A young woman joined them, clutching a sobbing child in her arms. “Lorena, _el chico, el cadete de_ Galaxy Garrison _, fue a buscar a tu hija, pero…_ ”

Keith picked out a few words.

Galaxy Garrison. A cadet.

Lance.

Lance had gone into the building.

Oh God.

“What room?” Keith demanded.

Everyone looked at him with red-rimmed eyes from the smoke.

“What room?” he screamed, heart threatening to beat out of his chest.

The flames snapped.

The question was translated and the man turned to Keith. “Room three hundred and twelve, but—”

Keith was already shrugging off his orange and white jacket and ripping off the sleeve with his luxite blade that Krolia had returned to him with a quiet, “ _this belongs to you,”_ and securing it over his mouth and nose, the rest of the jacket wrapped about his left hand while his right clutched at his knife.

The flames burned higher.

_Everyone told him not to run back into that building._

_He did anyway._

_You couldn't tell him anything._

Keith let out a choked sound as he sprinted into the burning building.

Like father like son.

He just…

Just hoped…

Hoped this had a happier ending.

_“They both died, the firefighter and that little girl.”_

_“What a tragedy.”_

_“Those poor families…”_

Keith bypassed the first floor, just beginning to smolder, in a blink, charging up the flight of stairs towards the second. The smoke grew thicker with each step, the heat pressing in harder.

Was…

Was Lance even alive? The little girl?

Keith kept going.

The stairs were compromised by the time he reached the third floor, sagging in places and the walls pulsing with flames.

Keith didn’t stop.

His eyes watered in the smoky gloom and he could feel them changing to that yellow hue of his Galran side as they tried to compensate for the darkness even as the flickering flames and burning timber sparked with their hot glow.

He coughed heavily into his jacket, already feeling his lungs tightening.

If Lance was here…

He didn’t have much time.

Apartment numbers flew by and Keith found himself stumbling through the doorway wreathed in flames without a second thought, cloth-wrapped hand propelling him past the burning door.

He froze.

He’d found Lance.

And the little girl, wrapped up in his arms with her face pressed into Lance’s chest, both just feet from the door.

They weren’t moving.

“Lance!” he gasped, stumbling forward. The floor creaked ominously beneath him. “Lance!”

The smoke was heavier here, contained in the small, windowless room.

He dropped to his knees. “Lance!”

He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be—

“K-Keith,” hazy blue eyes pried themselves open, bright on the dark face. He coughed weakly. “H-help her.”

Keith’s gaze darted to the girl.

A panicked, tear streaked face met his, Lance’s cadet jacket clutched to her mouth.

The building groaned.

The ceiling above them shook.

All three looked up as one as a line of orange split the thin plaster.

And then it came down.

Keith didn’t know how it happened but one second he was kneeling there and the next he had been shoved backwards, the small girl in his arms and Lance…

“No!” Keith screamed, “Lance!”

The ceiling had nearly buried him save for one outstretched arm and his face, shielded by his other arm he’d raised.

The plaster was still burning.

Lance’s face was screwed up with pain beneath the weight and the fire but he let out a weak cough.

Still alive.

For now.

Ocean eyes pried themselves open and met Keith’s yellow and purple stare. “G-go. Help her. _P-por favor.”_ He coughed again, eyes sliding back closed.

“No, no no,” Keith muttered. “Lance, no! Pl—”

Another line crossed the ceiling by the doorway.

They…

They didn’t have time.

And if Keith didn’t leave now…

His eyes flicked to the small girl, who had gone limp in his arms although her chest was still rising shallowly.

She would die.

And Lance would never forgive him.

“I’ll be back,” he promised, tears and smoke choking him equally as he pressed the majority of his own jacket against Lance’s lower face. “I’ll be back.”

Lance didn’t respond.

Keith tore from the room.

_“I heard they were almost out.”_

_“No!”_

_“Just a few more steps.”_

Keith jumped an entire landing, legs shaking but absorbing the impact.

_“I heard he left behind a son. No mother.”_

_“Oh, the poor dear.”_

_“I wonder what will happen to him…”_

Keith crashed out the front entrance, chest heaving and lungs hacking.

His legs gave way below him, sending him to his knees. Hands were there then, pulling the girl from his arms — “ _¡Ella está viva! ¡Prisa! ¡Ella necesita oxígeno! ¡Oh, gracias! ¡Gracias!”_ — and Keith let her go.

He stumbled back to his feet and faced the building.

“Kogane!” Nadia was at his side, arms digging into his arm, skin there already blistering. “Kogane, what are you—?”

“Lance is in there,” he rasped. “Let me go.”

“You idiot, you’ll die, you—”

“Let me go!” he snarled, tearing his arm out of her grip.

She let out a gasp and Keith could feel his fangs poking at his lip, vision going slightly more amber around the edges as his eyes turned fully yellow.

He ran back into the building.

He wondered if this was how his pop had felt.

He wondered if a burning building would be his grave too.

The staircase from the second floor to the third was gone now, a smoldering wreck of burnt wood.

Keith braced tired legs and _leapt,_ propelling himself from one wall to the other.

He had no idea how they were going to get back down.

He didn’t let himself think on it.

The fire had eaten more of the third floor now.

Keith clutched what remained of his jacket tighter across his mouth although he doubted it was helping at his point and charged in.

Lance was where he’d left him.

The flames were not.

They had encircled the entire room, running up walls, devouring the furniture, and more pieces of ceiling had come down and then through the weakened floor.

They had yet to touch Lance though and that was all that mattered.

Keith just prayed the smoke hadn’t already…

He didn’t check on Lance, couldn’t check yet, and instead pushed with all his might on the pieces of burning plaster holding Lance captive.

His hand burned.

Keith ignored it.

He paused only to grab his knife out of its holster once more, elongating it to slice through a thicker piece and heft it away. As he cleared the last piece Lance gave a shudder.

He was alive.

“Lance, Lance, can you hear me?” Keith knelt down, patting at the dark cheek. “Lance!”

No response.

The floor creaked below them.

Keith had an idea.

It was a very bad idea.

But it was the only one that stood a chance.

He grabbed one of Lance’s arms and hoisted it about his neck and then the other.

Lance’s head was limp on his shoulder.

Keith liked to think he could feel a faint puff of breath on his neck.

He grabbed at Lance’s legs then, fingers digging bruisingly into the burned and frayed pants, and hefted Lance’s legs about him in the most awkward piggyback ride that existed. Keith would put him in a fireman’s carry but he needed the balance, the weight to be evenly distributed.

It would give him his best chance.

His only chance.

They were going to die.

“Okay,” he coughed, hands tightening on Lance’s legs. “We’re… we’re gonna be okay.”

They weren’t going to be okay.

There was no way this was going to work. This was beyond reckless, this was suicidal this…

This was the only way they both had a chance.

And Keith would not leave Lance behind.

“Ready?” he choked out.

He sure wasn’t.

The building gave another dangerous creak.

Keith heard something collapsing from far above.

They were going to be crushed if he didn’t act now.

So he did.

Keith _stomped_ with all his might on the floor beneath them.

A crack appeared in the plaster.

He did it again.

It widened.

On the third strike it gave way.

Keith had no air left of his own to yell as they fell.

All he could do was hold Lance and try to keep them in a straight fall, legs already bunched beneath him to absorb the impact as best he could.

They hit the second floor.

Keith felt something _snap_ in his right leg.

He might have screamed, he wasn’t sure, as the noise that came out of his throat didn’t sound human. He fell to his right knee, all of his weight braced on his left leg.

Lance slipped sideways.

_“I heard they were almost out.”_

_“Just a few more steps.”_

_“Just a few more steps.”_

_“Just a few more steps.”_

_“Just a few more steps.”_

Keith grit his teeth.

They were not going to die here.

He reached behind him, digging his fingers back into Lance’s thighs and forcing himself to his feet, Lance hanging limply.

His right leg trembled beneath him.

He took a step.

A different kind of fire exploded.

Keith made that screaming noise again.

He took another step.

_“I heard they were almost out.”_

_“Just a few more steps.”_

Step.

Step.

Hallway.

Step.

Step.

Stairs.

Step.

Lots of steps.

Just a few more.

_“I heard they were almost out.”_

_“Just a few more steps.”_

Keith hit the first floor.

He stumbled, expecting another stair.

Lance began to tilt off of his back.

“Kogane!”

He looked up and Nadia was there, in the building with her own cadet jacket wrapped about her lower face, that could not hide the fear tinged with relief in her gaze.

The building around them groaned.

She was at his side in an instant, hands reaching up to catch Lance and Keith let her do so, tugging him all the way off.

He shook.

Screams sounded from outside along with a rumbling noise.

The complex was coming down.

Keith reached over and grabbed one of Lance’s arms, dragging it about his neck and Nadia did the same.

And then they ran for the exit, Keith's leg screaming with every step that he forced himself to ignore.

Just a few more steps. 

The building collapsed behind them with a deafening roar, sending a billow of heat and smoke over them all.

As Keith coughed he picked out figures coming to them out of the smoke, portable oxygen masks that the Garrison had delivered just that day in hand.

Keith turned away from the assistance, looking to Lance who was on his knees and being held up by him and Nadia.

There was the barest glimmer of blue peeking open.

“Lance!” Keith rasped.

The gaze turned to him. “K-Keith,” his name was barely a whisper. “You…” He coughed. “The… the gi—?”

Keith looked to Nadia, who was looking at them both with an expression that was equally awed and scared and soft.

“She’s safe,” Nadia said gently, moreso than Keith had ever heard from her. “Thanks to the two of you.”

“ _Bu-bueno."_

His eyes slipped back closed.

Keith’s heart stuttered.

No.

He was lost to Keith’s sight then as an oxygen mask was planted over his face and someone picked him up, depositing him on some sort of stretcher. He struggled, trying to roll over, he had to see Lance, he had to—

“Calm down, Kogane,” Nadia loomed above him. “He’s gonna be fine, you crazy son of a bitch. Look, here he is.”

She made a gesture and a stretcher matching Keith’s was set down next to his. Lance had his own oxygen mask on and it was filled with a healthy condensation as he _breathed._

Keith let out a choked one of his own.

_“I heard they were almost out.”_

_“Just a few more steps.”_

They’d made it out.

He’d made those few last steps.

They’d _lived._

He let out a sob, muffled by the mask.

Nadia’s gaze swung back to his, but it was the half-lidded blue that turned towards him that had his attention.

A blistered, burned tan hand reached out and Keith found his own stretching to grab it, holding it tight.

They’d _lived._

Pop hadn’t. The little girl he’d tried to rescue hadn’t.

But they _had._ This little girl had.

Like father like son.

But…

But this time with a happy ending.

Keith couldn’t have asked for anything more.

**Author's Note:**

> All these last few fics keep trying to get away from me and I can’t help it. When I got this prompt I really wanted to something with Keith and his pop's history and death and getting to combine Lance into it is icing on the cake ♥ A little more Keith suffering and a little less Lance than planned upon, but my heart is warmed (both by hellfire and fuzzies) and so all is good. Enjoy? Please leave a comment!


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